Speech

 I had to describe the system of government in Great Britain, in USA and in our republic.

So I begin with the political system in Great Britain. Britain is a constitutional monarchy. It means that the head of the state is the queen but she can act only on advice of her ministers. The Constitution of United Kingdom is unwritten; it is based on custom, traditional common law.

    The supreme law-making body in the country is Parliament. It consists of: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. British parliamentary system is one of the oldest in the world, it developed slowly during 13th century after King John‘s signature of Magna Charta.

    The Commons has 650 elected and paid Members of Parliament - about 520 from England, about 70 from Scotland, about 40 from Wales and about 20 from Northern Ireland. The Lords is made up of hereditary of life peers (Lords Temporal), 2 archbishops and 24 bishops of the Church of England (Lord Spiritual).

    The Prime Minister chooses about 20 ministers to from special advisory group called the Cabinet. Most cabinet ministers are a head of government departments. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is head of the finance department, iťs called also the Treasury and the Foreign Secretary is the minister in charge of foreign affairs.

    There are two main parties - Labourists and Liberals. General elections to choose Members of Parliaments are every five years. Voting is not compulsory and is from the age of 18. There are also local elections, when people vote for councilors to represent them in their city, borough or district.

    Now I‘ll be talking about the system of government in the USA. The USA with the President as the head of state is a federation of 50 states. United States rose on the basin of the Constitution. The constitution went into effect in the year 1787. This document guarantees freedom of religion, free speech, the right of citizens to bear arms, the right to a fair trial and protection against cruel and unusual punishment. It gave the USA the principle of a balance power divided into three branches - legislative, executive and judicial.

    The legislative branch is made up of elected representatives. The main body is called the Congress - its seat is in Capitol. The Congress is divided into two parts - the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consist of about 450 lawmakers who are elected according to the population of each state and serve for two years. The Senate has 100 members - 2 members from each state, who serve six years. The main task of the Congress is to make federal laws, declare war and deal with foreign treaties.

    The executive branch is represented by the President and 13 executive departments. The President together with his Vice-President is chosen in nation-wide elections every 4 years. The President can be elected only to two terms. Presidential powers are rather big - he proposes bills, can veto or refuse a bill, he is the Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces, makes treaties, and appoints federal judges and ambassadors. The present departments are: State, Treasure, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labour, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, and Education.

    There are also two parties. There are The Republican Party and The Democratic Party.

    So now I will talk about our republic. The Czech Republic is a sovereign and democratic state. Its government is divided into three branches - the legislative, represented by Parliament, the executive, represented by the president ant the government, and the judicial, represented by courts at various levels.

The Parliament consists of two chambers - the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There are 200 Deputies and 81 Senators. The elections to the Chamber of Deputies take place every four years while every two years one third of the Senators are renewed. When this time come, every citizens from the age of 18 can exercise the universal, equal, direct, and secured right to vote. The Parliament is a lawmaking body.

    The President is elected every five years by the Parliament but no one serve more than two terms in office in row. The President represents the state abroad and concludes foreign treaties. He has also many duties in relation to the other bodies of government. The President is also the commander-in-chef of the army. He can say veto to bills and can return the bill to the Parliament.

   The government is composed of the premier, the vice-premiers, and ministers. The several ministries, headed by ministers are Interior, Foreign Affairs, Defense, Justice, Commerce, Agriculture, Education, Finance, Transport, Labour and Social Affairs, Culture, and Health.

There are many parties. The strongest are Civic Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party.

Royal family in GB

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

has been the official title of the mother of the present Queen since the death other husband, King George VL She has been popular with the British people ever since her tours of bombed areas of London during the Second World War. She was born in 900 and is the most consistently popular member of the royal family.

Queen Elizabeth II

was born in 1926 and became Queen in 1952. She is one of the longest-reigning rnonarchs in British history. She is widely respected for the way in which she performs her duties and is generally popular.

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales

 was born in 1948. As the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, he is heir to the throne. Ho is concerned about the environment and about living conditions in Britain‘s cities. Re sometimes makes speeches which are critical of aspects of modem life.

Princess Diana

married Prince Charles in 198 I. She was very glamorous (okouzlující) and therefore a favourite of the popular press. When Charles and Diana separated in 1992 she received a lot of support from the media.